Fraudsters Are Exploiting New Health Law

One Con: Telling Medicare Beneficiaries They Must Choose New Plans

During the past year, scams tied to Medicare have risen sharply as con artists have sought to exploit confusion among older individuals about the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

Now, with Medicare's open-enrollment season in full swing, consumer advocates say beneficiaries—and the adult children who advise them—should be on guard for swindles and steer clear of unsolicited requests for personal financial information.

In the months preceding the Oct. 1 opening of the state-based health-insurance exchanges, consumer complaints about Medicare—many alleging fraud—soared. In September alone, consumers filed almost 2,000 such complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, up from 57 in January 2012. An additional 58 complaints filed this year have mentioned the ACA, up from two in 2012.

The trend has prompted the FTC and nonprofit organizations—including the National Consumers League, the Better Business Bureau and the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud—to issue warnings in recent months about health-care scams that target the elderly.

Lois Greisman, associate director of the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices, says the recent wave of publicity over changes in the health-care system and confusion among consumers over the ACA may be contributing factors. "With confusion comes opportunity for fraudsters," she says.

According to a recent survey of 1,101 people by Express Scripts, a St. Louis-based pharmacy-benefits management company, a significant portion of Medicare recipients has misconceptions about the ACA. While there have been no changes to Medicare's annual open-enrollment procedures, 20% of Americans age 65 and over incorrectly believe they can enroll in Medicare through one of the new state-based health-insurance exchanges, which actually cater to individuals under 65. Seventeen percent believe exchange-based policies are replacing Medicare, according to the survey.

Among the survey's respondents, 10% say they or someone they know has been the victim of a health-care fraud. Ms. Greisman says in many instances, con artists claim—falsely—that the ACA requires Medicare beneficiaries to buy a new policy or Medicare card. Often, they pose as a representative of Medicare or an insurer and ask for personal financial information, such as a Social Security or bank-account number.

Advocates say consumers shouldn't divulge any information to unsolicited callers or visitors and should be skeptical of Caller ID, which can be manipulated. Those who are approached should file complaints with the FTC (ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm), local law enforcement, and their state's attorney general and insurance department, says John Breyault, a vice president of public policy at the National Consumers League. They can also call the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging's new fraud hotline at 855-303-9470.

During Medicare's annual open-enrollment period, which started on Oct. 15 and ends on Dec. 7, beneficiaries can make changes to their coverage. Those who wish to enroll in or switch plans can go to medicare.gov or call 1-800-633-4227. Free counseling is available through the nonprofit State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIPtalk.org).

And yet legions of these toothless wonders will line up to vote for a Dem presidential candidate because they saw an ad that depicted Republicans as throwing granny off a cliff. A real cliff is the $715 billion that O cut from Medicare to fund his Marxist ponzi albatross he's trying to get off the ground.

Conmen see fleecing opportunities in the Obamacare fiasco? Conmen (insurance companies) wrote Obamacare. Conmen (legislators) passed Obamacare. The Conman-in-Chief signed Obamacare into law. The Conman Justice of the Supreme Court confirmed Obamacare as constitutional.

It's just sad that there is no honor among thieves, isn't it? But who can be surprised that people follow these role models? They are our elite. They are our heroes...

PANDORA'S BOX full of chaos and mayhem . . .. just what the lefties love---the more the better, 'cause they never will let a good crisis go to waste, especially those THEY CREATE!

Not only does Obama & his junta allow outside fraudsters to step in a do what they do best, but Obama's gal pal Kathy, is hiring them too, working the phones as 'navigators' helping folks defraud the U.S. Government to get their subsidized healthcare.

One 'good' about this mess. Home break ins are way down since the government seems to be handing out engraved invitations for fraud. In some cases they're really shoveling out the cash ( 400 IRS 'refunds' to one address in Kurdistan - somewhere out that way. Fraudsters follow the money. If it's being thrown out there they are! QED.

The government bears a great deal of responsibility in matters of entitlements and aid, they appear to be willing to take the losses and charge more taxes to cover the loss. How about protect and prevent by oversight and more efficient ways, graft and corruption go hand in hand with political malfeasance and in this day and age the size scope and cost of government has been the main cause of growing expense and higher taxes..

These knotty issues are the kinds of issues that POTUS considers "small ball". He only wants to get the big questions. On the surface, one could say that POTUS is looking to appropriately size the question to the office. But, in fact, that is not his objective.

What POTUS calls "small ball" is actually the really tough questions. These questions are the tar balls of executive management where every decision is an adhesive for a myriad of tough consequences. It is easy to sit above everyone and pronounce generic big ideas, but it is different, much different, to actually deal with the specific, often gnarly, steps and trade-offs that come with actual implementation.

Socialism, like inexperience, is a world of faulty suppositions and convenient ignorance. Inhabitants of both realms believe they are Captain Picard spitting out directives that only an actor can love (e.g., Make it so; stop the radiation with Jello; shoot down the Klingons with thought waves) with the full expectation that, in whatever time remains, magic will occur regardless of the challenge.

Unfortunately, for the rest of us, we have to deal with the constraints of logic, customer acceptance, time, money, technology and people. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, we sometimes have to endure leaders like POTUS who received their positions in order for some folks to address some goal other than competence. We have ALL been there - whether it is the sisterhood, the frat network, the neighbor, the golf buddy or for (or against) some social policy - we have all been there.

Let's admit we made a hiring mistake and get to the fixing of the company before we find ourselves not only in economic but also in geo-political bankruptcy.

If you like you fraudster policy then you can keep your fraudster policy as long as it meets ACA requirements. If your fraudster policy does not meet the ACA requirements, then it will be canceled and you will be refered to the non-secure government heathcare website for entry of any private information not already captured by the fraudsters.

When one makes too many changes all at one time in a complex system they create an environment for errors and fraudsters. This is the prime reason I figured the ACA would lead to massive fraud. That the software running the websites was also a disaster was not something I figured would happen, but Democrats are so sure of themselves that it was bound to turn out like this. Now the databases are also full of errors, and perhaps data is easy to steal, so eventually there will occur lots of mistakes and identity theft. There were many ways to improve the system of health care payment, I wish we would have let the various states try a few of them. Instead the Democrats were so determined not let veto proof majorities go to waste that they had no time to think.

It is well documented that Obama deliberately lied to the citizens to advance Obamacare, which is merely another Democrat tax redistribution program. His constant mantra of “If you like your policy, you can keep your policy. Period! If you like your Doctor, you can keep your Doctor. Period! The average insured will save $2,500 per year,” proved unequivocally not true. All Congressional Democrats participated in the lie, and voted for it.

This transgression is not just a domestic issue, but a major international issue carried in the news papers of most countries in the world. What confidence can our allied leaders have in the words of our president with regard to the U.S. being a reliable arbitrator over Iran, the Middle-east, free trade, world economic matters, and the many other issues that extend beyond our borders? How can our enemies capitalize by knowing that the words of the most powerful Leader in the free world may be untrue?

When you add the Obama international spying scandal, one can imagine that our President has set back international relations 100 years.

President Obama will not just be judged by the 51 percent of Americans that voted for him, and the 49 percent that voted against him, he will be judged by the citizens of the world.

Like vultures attracted by the decaying carcass that is Obamacare, dead on the very day it was born.

We will one day learn that victims were targeted by Obamacare "navigators', democrat party operatives, all of whom good democrats and cherished democrat voting blocs - career criminals, thieves, con artists, non-producing grifters, illegal aliens, jihadis on expired visas identified by foreign and domestic intelligences agencies who warned Sebilius directly by written correspondence, inner city street gangsters from Chicago, child molesters and other preferred and protected classes by acts of congress and receiving Federal grants and salaries.

It is really sad that government intervention brings in the fraudsters among us. One more reason why we should not rely on government as much as we do, with the exception of prosecuting the people who defraud others.

Obama practically invited the fraudsters to commit fraud when he stated that they would not check the income amounts they claim in their applications.

So it's no surprise. What's a surprise is that the government now laments that some are committing Obamacare fraud when the President himself lied thru his teeth and committed the greatest Obamacare fraud of all.

I'm predicting the US is still high on communists' radar to seize control . However , after the great awakening of 2013 , they're going have to resort to firing shots . Americans of sick of this socialistic , marxist , communist bs that's coming out of the liberal masterminds that as you say are calling themselves democrats . I don't believe even the president is going to sweet talk anyone into just bending over much more . Even his sheep are turning on them .

Just Medicare fraud approaches 30% per year or $150 billion which is the same amount Obama promises ObamaCare will save over 10 years. If the billion invested in ObamaCare data systems was invested in Medicare and Medicaid, the savings could have addressed the needs of the uninsured without taking over the entire health care delivery system. The fraud you are describing here is just the beginning of ObamaCare also approaching 30% annual fraud cost. In contrast, the hated private insurance companies keep fraud between 1-3% percent and if you add the best of their net profits, Medicare cost 20% more than a well run profitable private insurance company.

Nikita Khrushchev was prophetic but little did we know his generals would be two teacher union presidents, his troops disguised as K-12 teachers, their enablers the Democratic Party and his treasury US taxpayers conquering one school district at a time whose graduates over time where programmed to elect the Protected Liar from Birth to Benghazi enabled by today's so-called main stream press.

"The trend has prompted the FTC and nonprofit organizations—including the National Consumers League, the Better Business Bureau and the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud—to issue warnings in recent months about health-care scams that target the elderly."

The Republican Party of today, is the Democrat party of 25 years ago. The Democrat party is now the party of Nikita Khrushchev, who said in 1953 that he would make this a Communist Nation without firing a shot.

My mother and father were both devout Democrats and my father introduced John Kennedy to the audience when he campaigned for president in our state.

I would like to believe that my mother and father would have changed parties if they were still alive today. My father told me, shortly before he died, that he was having second thoughts about the Democrat Party, and that was long before anyone heard of Barrack Hussein Obama. I would like to invite any Democrat who believes in truth, freedom and democracy to consider if they want to stay in a party of lies, and Socialism, from the top down.

Giovanni.....Our President is intelligent. No argument there. He is very sharp and quick to assess people and situations. In my view he is so academically smart that he is easily bored by most day to day problems that require drudging through the facts to come up with a solution. You've probably seen these types out on the world. Now, with the ACA issues starting with the web site bombing and cancellations of policies and his response of allowing a year reprieve for those "bad" policies, when the next round of ACA bad news hits the fan, we may witness a higher level of his problem solving incompetence.

As my dad used to say, he's a smart fellow, just doesn't have any sense.

Actually the PPACA was conceived in fraud, passed in the dead of night by an arcane budget process called 'budget recconcillation' that required only 51 votes (since Scott Brown election removed their 60 vote super majority. I'm surprised that they didn't forget to have POTUS sign it. Reid and Pelosi are co-equal, if not more, conspirators.

Their whole medical system is the problem, not just govt fraud or insurance company fraud. They admit they are creating super bugs. Super bugs are created by their inferior antibiotics. Its MD pharma-based medicine's fault. But, If they had continued to use cheap colloidal silver, as they did before Rockefeller-backed-pharma-drug-companies patented inferior antibiotics, we wouldn't have super bugs. I've used ionic colloidal silver for years and I'm still not blue. In fact, the only real side-effect of using colloidal silver is that it actually works, AND gives big drug companies less profit. Its a win-win situation. My fav these days is Advanced Silver, but they all work.

Medicare & S.S. would have been ok if LBJ had not moved the S.S . funds to a General fund, whereupon those thieving politicians could spend it on other things. Medicare, same thing too. From S.S. alone $2.5 Trillion has been taken from our so called trust fund.

Hard to tell since prior to Obamacare, democrats took over the education system, turning it into an expensive factory that churns out brainwashed dolts lacking basic reasoning and math skills. They win elections because the stupid have taken over the electorate and the thugs and freeloaders have been elevated to hero status in the culture.

You give him too much. If POTUS is so smart then where is the proof? Locked up in sealed education transcripts by himself. I think it's fair to assume those transcripts will show an average or average minus intellectual individual.

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